


Bag Full of Broken Glass

by RebornFromSeas



Series: We all have monsters in our memories; some of us might be them still [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb's fucking awful self-esteem, Canon-Typical Violence, Eavesdropping, Gen, It ends on a better note than it sounds like it would, M/M, Miscommunication, Nott ships it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 20:19:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14859593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebornFromSeas/pseuds/RebornFromSeas
Summary: In the aftermath of a fight, Caleb finds the set of pens Mollymauk had bought him and a soaked note.  The discovery is warped, as always, by how he sees himself.





	Bag Full of Broken Glass

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I'm cribbing Liam's phrasing for this fucking fanfic title, no it has nothing to do with the contents of the fic. For anyone following this series: I'm on a bit of a vacation right now, thus the current production speed. Please don't think it'll persist.
> 
> Also, I don't know why I'm so fond of leaving parts of conversations off the page.

Jester went down first, her body falling gracefully backwards into the snow like she was going to make snow angels with children as she had in the last village. The splash of red belied that, though, and spoke of how bad this fight would be. Even beyond their lives being too reliant on her being up and able to heal them, no one would deny she was their favorite. Everyone immediately tensed and scrambled to protect her. Caleb sent fire into the flank of the unknown hairy white beast to try and draw it off, Nott running towards her and firing crossbow bolts into it’s hide as she went, only stopping short to wait for a safe moment to dart in. Mollymauk slashed at the side Caleb had burned and danced away. 

That drew the beast further out, snapping at Molly and half-following him, snow kicking up from the motion, only to get punished by Beau and Yasha in quick succession. Fjord sent magic from his falchion – something that pushed the beast further away from the girls. Unfortunately, it was closer to Mollymauk. Beau was barely able to stop it from lunging for the Tiefling a second time. 

Nott slid in next to Jester and shouted, “I don’t have a potion!”

Caleb grunted and tried to pin the beast with a cat-paw of earth. His own health potion burned in his pocket, but he shouted, “She still has a med kit in her bag! Dump her bag if you need to!”

Nott did just in the next second, dumping all the contents of the magic bag out and snagging the medical kit – but took an extra moment to open the lead box and touch the humming dodecahedron inside.

Mollymauk cursed, and despite how close he was to the creature, spat infernal words out to enthrall it. Fjord fired and eldritch blast at it, and Beau and Yasha closed in – Which is when everyone found out that Mollymauk’s spell had landed, the beast ignored everyone else, wiggled out from under the earthen paw pinning it and lunged for Molly’s throat. Beau tried to hold it back but failed, and the jaws sank deep. At least Yasha stopped the thing from swiping with its claws as well.

Caleb cursed and pulled out licorice root. Nott started bandaging Jester faster – fast enough that a moment later she stood, holding her crossbow, and shot the beast. “She’s stable!”

Molly didn’t move, and Beau growled at the sight of him hanging limp and swung her staff down hard and followed up with a series of vicious strikes, Yasha joining in with wide, wild slashes with her great sword. Fjord blasted the back of the beast’s head and forced it to drop Mollymauk’s unconscious form. Caleb hissed through clenched teeth, eyes darting to Mollymauk then Jester, then the beast again. He sent a firebolt to it once more, and Nott scrambled with all the bag’s items around her until she found a potion and poured it down Jester’s throat, then fired her crossbow again, sinking it through the beast’s eye.

Jester cracked her eyes open then. A Loud bell rang out and the beast howled. 

Beau’s next strike plunged through one of the slashes Molly had made, sticking deep in the creature’s organs. When she pulled her fist out, guts trailed after. It’s heavy, hairy body fell a moment later, barely missing Mollymauk. 

Caleb ran forward, pulling the tiefling out of the snow. “Jester, do you have any spells left?”

“Yeah, hold on.” Jester sat up and moved slowly over to Molly and noted that he wasn’t the only one injured. She bit her lip, then muttered under her breath. Blue light glowed from Yasha, Jester, Beau and Mollymauk, healing Yasha and Beau entirely and herself and Mollymauk mostly. Jester looked around after that and asked, “What’s with all my stuff on the ground?”

“Ah! Um, Sorry Jester, I dumped everything out to find a potion to heal you!”

Mollymauk sat up from where Caleb had held him in his lap, and rubbed his shoulder, wincing as he did.

Caleb sighed with relief and turned to Jester, “I will help you clean it up, ja?”

“Oh!” Jester nodded, “Yes please!” 

Caleb stood, and walked back over to where items were scattered. He sighed and close the lead-lined box first. Jester flipping her bag the right way, and they starting putting things back. The box, some of Jester’s extra clothes, her inks and paints, her emergency stash of gold, the remains of the med kit – everything went back into the bag. And then Caleb found something odd. The rosewood box itself didn’t seem that strange for Jester, but the letter attached to it was. It was addressed to him. But the snow had melted into the paper and blurred a great deal of it. “Jester? What is this?”

Jester’s eyes widened, then flickered back to the group. “It’s – um – Oh no.”

“I was going to give it to you,” Mollymauk said from behind him, “things just got a bit hectic and it’s been a few weeks. It’s yours if you’d like it.” 

Caleb looked around, just in time to see Molly’s careless shrug, the way he looked to the horizon when their eyes met for a moment. Caleb frowned, and unfolded the letter – it was addressed to him. His name was clear, and then, in Molly’s smooth script, “Sorry for –” Caleb scowled now, something sour curling up in his stomach. “Ah, Mollymauk? What did the note say before it got wet?”

Molly paused, then knelt and shrugged, “I wrote it like two weeks ago? I think it started with ‘Sorry for the presumption,’ err – you’d done something to your pen and it struck me like a good idea to get you more – ‘but I thought you might like these.’ I went on to uh, also apologize for that incident in Zadash?”

Caleb tried to ignore the sourness gathering, but it wouldn’t stop. Did Mollymauk pity him? Had he not given the case to him – wait, pens? That was worse, it was the day right after he’d told Mollymauk. Still, Caleb opened the case at that point and sucked in his breath. The Case had to have been expensive on its own, rosewood as it was, but the pens? They were gorgeous. It was too much. Caleb cleared his throat though, and forced out, “Which incident in Zadash?”

Mollymauk stiffened where he knelt beside Caleb. “Uh, After the Fade Spider?”

Caleb looked at the case, then at the lavender tiefling, “I see, when you confronted me after my conversation with Jester, about not holding that much back from everyone?” He spoke softly, so his voice wouldn’t carry. He couldn’t disguise the edge that crept into his words.

Mollymauk blink, his eyebrows furrowing. “Did I see that?”

Caleb nodded, “You did. It is fine. This is an apology then? Thank you.” He stood, slipping the pen case into one of his pockets. He spotted Fjord, he seemed about ready to go, as did everyone else.

Good. He did not want to continue speaking to Molly if he could help it. It sounded more and more like it had been given out of pity. He did not want that, but he would not throw away good material just because they’d been given out of emotions he did not want. He’d thought better of Mollymauk. The only thing keeping him from being bitterly angry was the slim chance that Mollymauk had known not to give it to him out of such condescension and had been holding it back for a better occasion. He walked beside the cart, feeling the need for exercise, and barely noticed that Nott had fallen back to Molly and started speaking with him. 

Good, Caleb hoped she was scolding him for such a poor choice.

They marched on in some semblance of silence for a while longer until Molly’s voice started to pick up volume, “…with Caleb considering you let him get away with using us as living shields between him and Calianna! Thank goodness that wasn't necessary!"

Nott let out a piercing screech that carried, “I’m glad you recognize that, but HOW DARE YOU. You agreed with him!”

Mollymauk’s response didn’t quite match the force of hers, but still he was shouting now, “Yes! And I still say he was right to be suspicious of her motives! But he should have told us that he was and that he wanted to confirm them before asking that of us! I for one might have volunteered!”

Caleb stopped short, surprised to hear Mollymauk actually fighting with Nott over this. “But…” he breathed under his breath, not understanding at all. Didn’t Mollymauk pity him? 

Beau, from where she was driving the cart, shouted, “Right? Right? See! I fucking told you, Caleb.”

Molly snorted, “No, no you fucking didn’t your thing was about him controlling the situation which was fucking hilarious considering you immediately jumped in and tried to take control yourself! Beau, darling, stay the fuck out of this. Nott and I weren’t even discussing that originally.” Mollymauk announced, now at a normal volume as he rode W.C. past where Caleb stood – Nott on the saddle in front of him. “And Nott – I swear you do him no favors by never encouraging him to connect with the rest of the group. He’s trying to, you know, and it sure seems to be what he wants on some level. I’ll also have you know I wasn’t going to…”

Caleb blinked, realizing that the pace Molly had set the horse too was leaving him just standing like a fool. He couldn’t even hear them clearly anymore since Molly had dropped his voice lower as well. Caleb cursed. “Beau! The cart!” and ran forward to catch up. Beau slowed the cart, and Caleb climbed in, thankful that although Beau like rubbing his face in mistakes, she rarely held it against him so far as to leave him freezing in the cold. “Danke.”

He huddled into the cart and started drying off his clothes, which didn’t take much concentration. With Beau guiding the cart, he was free to try and listen into Nott and Molly.

“I don’t know? Alright?” Mollymauk said.

“How do you not know?”

“Well, do you know what your relationship with that halfling is?”

“I haven’t seen him in years!”

“And do you know what you want it to be?”

Nott didn’t speak at first, then said something that Caleb couldn’t make out – too quiet, too muttered, and not her normal shrill croak at all.

“Well, congratulations, you’re ahead of me then. That’s really all it is. Also, I like Caleb, I do, I think he has the potential to be an amazing man, but Nott, all the praise in the world isn’t going to help him grow, and he needs to learn what’s holding him back now.”

Nott grumbled, “I get it, I get it, you think I’m supporting him wrong.” 

Mollymauk hummed, something deep that carried despite the snow. “Yes, terribly sorry, but that’s true, dear. Can I ask why this even matters to you, though? You don’t normally encourage people getting closer.”

“I saw you that night after he –” Nott cut herself off sharply, hissed, then said, “I think he can hear us.”

“It’ll keep then.”

Caleb’s ear went red, and he fumbled to pull out his new pen set. It was, undeniably, very nice. He’d missed it before but opening it up again let him see a piece of parchment tucked into the top of it. Caleb pulled it out an unfolded it, letting out a pleased huff when he realized it was instructions for proper care.

Mollymauk hadn’t given it to him out of pity, but instead some other emotion that branched off of affection that made him want to give Caleb things. It was odd to think about. Caleb didn’t deserve nice things, really, but he new already he’d cherish these. He read the instruction carefully and pressed his fingertips to his lips.


End file.
